FAMOUS CROATS, Ljiljana Molnar-Talajić

Ljiljana Molnar-Talajić She was one of the greatest Croatian and international opera and concert artists. She pursued careers in the New York Metropolitan Opera, the Vienna State Opera, the Scala in Milan, the Covent Garden Royal Opera in London, the Arena in Verona and many other world music centres. They called her "La Molnar." Ljiljana Molnar Talajić was born in 1938 in Bosanski Brod, and died in 2007 in Zagreb. She received her education in Sarajevo and spent 15 years at the opera. As a student she won a medal at the Madame Butterfly International Competition in Tokyo, and she was revealed to the world by Zubin Mehta inviting her to interpret Aida and Verdi’s Requiem at the Maggio musicale Fiorentino festival. She soon became the most famous Aida in the world, "the last true Verdi soprano of the 20th century." Amelia in Crab Dance, both Leonoras in Troubadour and The Power of Destiny, Elizabeth in Don Carlo, Desdemona in Othello, as well as Puccini's Butterfly and Bellini's Norma, with Verdi's Requiem are part of the repertoire of her magically beautiful soprano of soft lines, dazzling heights, delicate pianos and natural emotional interpretation. She often returned to Croatia from world tours and performed in Rijeka, Osijek, Split, Dubrovnik, gave concerts in smaller communities. For several years she worked as an opera champion at the Croatian National Theater and as a professor at the Music Academy in Zagreb. Among many recognitions, she received the Vladimir Nazor Lifetime Achievement Award. Musicologist Jagoda Martinčević